Chamber and committees

I appreciate that and I understand the case transfer point, which is why carers allowance is still being delivered by the DWP. I get that, but why was £139 chosen and not £174.40?

I appreciate that. Child winter heating assistance, the Scottish child payment and the benefits that you have referred to are all steady-state benefits; they are not benefits that are paid only because we are in a cost of living crisis, like the ones that are in the legislation that the LCM relates to. That is the point that I am getting at. Why, if it is in the devolved competence of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government to do so, has the Government not given cost of living payments to these groups of people?

I declare an interest as well. I am in receipt of personal independence payment. Sorry—I did not mention that earlier.

I appreciate that. Thank you. It will probably come as no surprise to anyone to hear me say that I think there are other revenue-raising options that the Government has if it were to choose to consider doing things like doubling the carers allowance supplement.

To move on from that, we know that the inflation rate for people on low incomes is higher than for people on other incomes. That is the case because people on low incomes spend about 46 per cent of their income on things like food and energy. Did the Government explore other options when considering the uprating, and what impact does it think that the current uprating will have on families on low incomes? A number of the benefits that the minister has already spoken about today target those groups.

Good morning, minister and officials. Forty-four per cent of carers are in poverty. About 40 per cent of them have said that they are struggling to make ends meet and that they cannot afford essentials, 49 per cent are struggling to afford the cost of food and 37 per cent are in debt as a consequence of caring. The number of carers who have cut back on essentials since 2021 has almost doubled. Has the minister considered at this juncture doubling the carers allowance supplement?

Thank you. I have no further questions on that point.

Thank you. I appreciate that, and it is what my supplementary point is about. We are going into far wider issues. When we spent a bit of time talking about it from one perspective, that was fine, but we are now told that it is not fine to do so from another perspective. I just want to raise that and say that these things, if they matter, matter from a much broader perspective than the one that was raised.

I can go straight into my next theme if that is helpful.

Thank you for setting out the Government’s position on the cost of living payments and the legislative consent motion. If it is the view of the Scottish Government that it is within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament to pass legislation to provide payments to people in Scotland as set out in the bill, why has it not done so?

I do not understand why. The Scottish Government has data on which people are on low incomes in Scotland. We have that through various mechanisms, including from local authorities. If the Scottish Government believes that this legislation impinges on devolved legislation, it accepts that there is a responsibility in devolved legislation to make payments to people in times of hardship. My question is, why have you not done that?

Thank you. I appreciate that. My understanding is that, of the £400 million-odd, about £28 million is coming from your budget and the rest is coming from Barnett consequentials—